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Govt to deny housing benefit to jobless immigrants

Unemployed immigrants will be prevented from claiming housing benefit under plans put forward by senior ministers in a bid to prevent people exploiting the UK's welfare state, the Government announced. Restrictions will come into force in April.

Labour: New jobless must past tests or lose benefits

Shadow work and pensions secretary Rachel Reeves is to announce plans for a "basic skills test" for all new benefits claimants.

She is expected to say in a speech this morning:

We all know that basic skills are essential in today’s jobs market, but the shocking levels of English and maths among too many jobseekers are holding them back from getting work.

This traps too many jobseekers in a vicious cycle between low paid work and benefits.

Government plans in this area just aren’t enough. They’re now asking jobseekers who exit the failed Work Programme to take up literacy and numeracy training, three whole years after those people first make a claim for benefits.

A Labour government will introduce a Basic Skills Test to assess all new claimants for Job Seekers Allowance within six weeks of claiming benefits.

Those who don’t have the skills they need for a job will have to take up training alongside their jobsearch or lose their benefits.

Labour’s Basic Skills Test will give the long-term unemployed a better chance of finding a job and will help us to earn our way out of the cost-of-living crisis.